Average Canadian family paying more than $11,000 per year for public health care insurance

English: Canadian per capita health care spending by age group in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CALGARY, AB—An average Canadian family of two adults and two children will pay about $11,400 in taxes for Canada’s so-called “free” health care in 2012, calculates a new report from the Fraser Institute, Canada's leading public policy think-tank.

The report, The Price of Public Health Care Insurance: 2012 Edition, calculates the amount of taxes an average family pays to all levels of government in a year and the percentage of the total tax bill that goes towards public health care insurance.

By estimating the average income for six types of Canadian families, the report breaks down how much money each will contribute to public health care insurance in 2012:

A family of two parents with an average income of $106,808 and one child will pay $10,623.
A family of two parents with an average income of $113,226 and two children will pay $11,401.
A family of one parent with an average income of $46,134 and one child will pay $3,418.
A family of one parent with an average income of $50,964 and two children will pay $3,429.
A family of two adults with an average income of $96,458 and no children living at home will pay $11,358.
Unattached individuals earning an average income of $37,812 will pay approximately $3,707 for public health insurance.
"There’s a widespread belief that health care is free in Canada. It’s not; our tax dollars cover the cost of it. But the way we pay for health care disguises exactly how much public health care insurance costs Canadian families and how that cost is increasing over time," said Nadeem Esmail, Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of the report.

The report notes that since 2002, the cost of health care insurance for the average Canadian family increased by 59.8 per cent before inflation. By way of comparison, the cost of public health care increased more than twice as fast as the cost of shelter, roughly four times as fast as the cost of food, and more than five times as fast as the cost of clothing.

"We also found that the cost of public health care insurance grew 1.6 times faster than the average income over the decade," Esmail said.

In addition, the report calculates that the 10 per cent of Canadian families with the lowest incomes (less than $12,500) will pay an average of about $487 for public health care insurance in 2012. The 10 per cent of families earning an average income of $55,271 will pay $5,285, while families among the top 10 per cent of income earners will pay $32,628 towards public health care insurance this year.

"With a more precise estimate of what they really pay for health care on a personal level, Canadians will be in a better position to judge whether they are getting a good return on the money they spend on health care," Esmail said.

Source: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/news/display.aspx?id=18859

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Venture capitalists take lead role in immigrant visas

Image via CrunchBase

WALLACE IMMEN
The Globe and Mail


Venture capitalists are eager to become overseas scouts to lure potential technology stars to Canada as part of the federal government’s plan to fast-track immigration of promising entrepreneurs.

A statement from the immigration ministry last week said a Startup Visa program launching next year would set aside as many as 2,750 immigration places for innovators with investment backing from Canadian venture capitalists. But in an interview with The Globe and Mail, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney cautioned that he doesn’t want to he held to that number.


“I would be surprised if we get a few dozen entrants the first year,” Mr. Kenney said. “We’re starting this as pilot program. But if it works and picks up momentum, I can easily see hundreds of immigrants a year coming through this program.”

The federal government put a moratorium on new entrepreneur visas more than a year ago because the program had an eight-year backlog of applicants, and the vast majority of the 1,000 immigrants admitted each year opened small family businesses that didn’t create new jobs. A major change to the system is that applicants will have to be sponsored by Canadian venture capital or angel investor groups and be identified as having the potential to employ several Canadians in the first year of operation.

Immigrant entrepreneurs must secure an investment from the sponsoring fund, though the minimum amount has not yet been set, Mr. Kenney said.

The new program is slated to launch in January, and it will green-light applications at “lightening speed” compared with the earlier program, “because it will be starting without a backlog and it’s a priority for us. I think the timing for approval will be at most a few months,” Mr. Kenney said.

The program was developed through a series of consultations this summer between Ottawa and representatives from more than 20 startup accelerator programs, venture capitalists and angel investors. “There were concerns about ensuring it is not abused,” said Boris Wertz, who was in on the discussions and is principal and founder of Version One Ventures and the GrowLab accelerator in Vancouver. “But I think in general there is a great optimism among government officials and the entrepreneur community that this can provide a much better basis to attract entrepreneurs to start business in Canada.”

Richard Remillard executive director of Canadian Venture Capital Association in Ottawa, said his members “are looking to find the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, and that person could be in Bangalore or Singapore.”

The association – Canada’s largest, with 160 funds as members – was also involved in consultations with the ministry. About 80 of CVCA’s member companies invest in overseas startups, representing about 100 overseas investments a year. That compares with about 400 investments in Canada, he said.

“We’re looking at having to work more closely than before with Canadian offices abroad and trade commissions and consul-general offices. As awareness of this program spreads, we’ll look at those offices abroad as part of the scouting system for the industry.” Mr. Remillard explained.

The immigration ministry will still have to vet all Startup Visa requests like other immigration applications, Mr. Kenney said. “The visa will require security and medical checks and there may be some other criteria we set up, like a minimal language requirement. There’s no point in bringing people here to start a business if they speak zero English or French.”

Mr. Kenney said he wants to begin promoting the program overseas to get a jump on the United States, which is also planning to launch a startup visa program.

That plan is an amendment to the U.S. Immigration Act that would allow entrepreneurs sponsored by a qualified investor who invests at least $100,000 to get a conditional permit to come to the country to set up shop. The temporary permit would become permanent after two years if the business generates at least $500,000 and employs at least five people. The visa plan has been put on hold due to the leadup to the next U.S. election.

“We want to say, ‘look, the United States may have a dysfunctional immigration system, but Canada is open for business,’” Mr. Kenney said.

Canada’s plan is admirable, but there needs to be a bigger push toward implementation, says Alan Diner, partner and immigration practice leader at Baker McKenzie, who was a founder of the Ontario provincial nominee program. “The minister is justified in changing the program to find and bring in young entrepreneurs who can create growth and jobs rather than just open restaurants or laundromats,” he said. “But let’s get the program running and up to speed as fast as possible, because otherwise these young innovators will end up going to another country to set up their businesses.”

He said he still has doubts that Canada has enough venture capitalists to generate hundreds of new entrepreneur immigrants a year. “And I’m not aware that there are big bundles of capital that are not going to use.”

But Mr. Remillard said venture capital firms are hoping to find higher quality candidates for investment. “Our focus in the discussions was our role to look at the investment merits of the entrepreneurs. The same rigour with which our folks do their due diligence to potential investments will get applied to this new program,” he said.

And the advantage is they will do their innovation and hiring in Canada rather than overseas, he explained.

“I think Canada has a huge power of attraction now,” Mr. Remillard said. “We can offer political stability, an economy that’s market friendly. In a world where financial eruptions can occur, Canada is looking pretty good as an environment for newcomers to start a business.”

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New Canada: land of immigrants with many families under the same roof

English: Flag of Canada over country contour Français : Drapeau du Canada délimité par les frontières du pays Русский: Флаг-карта Канады (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

JOHN IBBITSON
Ottawa — The Globe and Mail

Each new tranche of census data reinforces the reality of two Canadas: The old Canada is a land of the native-born, where the size of households is small and where children are fewer. The new Canada is a land of immigrants, where multiple families and generations are more likely to mingle beneath the same roof. Politicians and business leaders should take note.


The 2011 census data on families, released Wednesday, brings a familiar picture into sharper relief. The Leave It To Beaver family of mom and dad and kids, while still dominant, continues to decline as a share of the population. For the first time, there are more people living alone than there are couples with children -- the product of a society growing older and of young people waiting longer before forming live-in relationships.

Households of the lonely are most prevalent in regions with struggling economies. More than three-in-10 households in Quebec have only one person in them, though the retirement hub of Victoria has a similarly high percentage.

In contrast, the burgeoning, immigrant-rich cities of Brampton, Markham, Vaughan and other communities on the edge of Toronto have an increasing number of multiple-family dwellings. Such households can also be found in the Greater Vancouver community of Surrey, which also has a high immigrant population.

These are hardly ghetto communities, filled with families crammed into small, dark and unhealthy tenements. They are cities filled with new arrivals from China, India and other parts of the emerging world, where communal and familiar bonds are stronger than among the more atomized families of the native born.

Other statistics paint a similar tale of regional stagnation or growth. The population of couples with children declined in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, but increased in all three Prairie provinces.

In Alberta, 29 per cent of households consist of couples with children. In New Brunswick, the figure is 24 per cent.

The differing demographics across the country present politicians with a contrasting set of challenges. In Alberta, local governments struggle to provide schools and daycare for families with young children. In the Maritimes, the challenge – and it is a formidable one – is to retain or attract a new generation of workers and consumers whose taxes can meet the demand for seniors’ residents and home-care programs.

Businesses will also want to parse the data. Those multiple-family households in Mississauga won’t want to stay multiple-family forever. Though the real-estate market may be showing signs of softening short-term, long-term demand for housing to accommodate the immigrant influx should remain robust.

Marketers will note the growing number of same-sex couples, who seek homes with fewer bedrooms, perhaps, but in neighbourhoods with better restaurants.

And communities with large numbers of retirees, or who seek to attract them, will want to tailor their own services and housing mix to suit the needs of the woman who suddenly and sadly finds herself living alone.

A census is a film, not a snapshot; it chronicles the growth and decline of populations across communities over time. The two Canadas have been apparent for years; the 2011 census simply confirms and amplifies trends already identified or suspected through anecdote.

This census makes concrete what we already suspected: that immigrants are growing the new Canada, while the old Canada watches and worries in decline.

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Canada leads North America in economic freedom, tied with Australia for fifth spot globally; U.S. sinks to 18 th in international rankings

economic-freedom-2009 (Photo credit: TZA)

September 18, 2012
For Immediate Release
TORONTO, ON—Canada is among the top five most economically free countries in
the world, well ahead of the United States which has fallen to 18
th
 overall, according
to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of the World report.
Canada, with an economic freedom score of 7.97 out of 10, tied with Australia to rank  
fifth out of 144 nations and territories included in the Economic Freedom of the
World: 2012 Annual Report. Last year, Canada ranked sixth overall.
“Canada’s relatively high level of economic freedom has resulted in stronger
economic growth, higher income levels, and less pain from the global recession,” said
Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute vice-president of international policy research.
“Meanwhile, other nations embraced heavy-handed regulation and extensive overspending in response to the American and European debt crises. Consequently, their
levels of economic freedom decreased.”
The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom among large
industrial nations, continues its protracted decline in the global rankings. This year,
the U.S. plunged to 18
th
, its lowest-ever ranking and a sharp drop from second overall,
the position it held in 2000. Much of this decline is a result of high spending on the
part of the U.S. government.
Hong Kong again topped the rankings of 144 countries, followed by Singapore, New
Zealand, and Switzerland. Australia and Canada tied for fifth overall.
Research shows that people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom
enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer life spans.
Globally, the average economic freedom score rose slightly to 6.83 in 2010, the most
recent year available, after plummeting to its lowest level in nearly three decades with
a score of 6.79 in 2009.
The annual Economic Freedom of the World report is the premier measurement of
economic freedom, using 42 distinct variables to create an index ranking of countries
around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The
cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom
to compete, and security of private property. Economic freedom is measured in five
different areas: (1) size of government, (2) legal structure and security of property
rights, (3) access to sound money, (4) freedom to trade internationally, and (5)
regulation of credit, labour, and business. The full report is available at
www.freetheworld.com.
Canada’s scores in key areas of economic freedom (from one to 10, where higher

values indicate higher levels of economic freedom) are:
• Size of government: 6.12 (74
th
 overall)
• Legal system and property rights: 8.74 (12
th
 overall)
• Access to sound money: 9.46 (25
th
 overall)
• Freedom to trade internationally: 7.65 (43
rd
 overall)
• Regulation of credit, labour, and business: 8.48 (sixth overall)
 (more) Economic Freedom of the World—page 2
International rankings
Hong Kong offers the highest level of economic freedom worldwide, with a score of 8.90 out
of 10, followed by Singapore (8.69), New Zealand (8.36), Switzerland (8.24), Australia and
Canada (each 7.97), Bahrain (7.94), Mauritius (7.90), Finland (7.88), and Chile (7.84).
The rankings of other large economies include: United States (18
th
), Japan (20
th
), Germany
(31
st
), South Korea (37
th
), France (47
th
), Italy (83
rd
), Mexico (91
st
), Russia (95
th
), Brazil (105
th
),
China (107
th
), and India (111
th
).
Venezuela has the lowest level of economic freedom among the 144 jurisdictions measured.
Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Republic of Congo, and Angola round out the bottom five nations.
“Sadly, citizens living in the bottom-ranked countries face a significantly lower quality of life
since they lose the benefits that come from growth spurred on by economic freedom and suffer
reduced prosperity,” McMahon said.
When the rankings are adjusted to account for changes over the years, it shows that during the
past decade some African and formerly Communist nations have experienced the largest
increases in economic freedom worldwide: Rwanda (44
th
 this year, compared to 106
th
 in
2000), Malawi (84
th
, up from 114
th
), Ghana (53
rd
, up from 101
st
), Romania (42
nd
, up from
110
th
), Bulgaria (47
th
, up from 108
th
), and Albania (32
nd
, up from 77
th
).

Countries showing the greatest declines since 2000 in the adjusted rankings include Venezuela
(123
rd
 this year, down from 94
th
), Argentina (110
th
, down from 34
th
), Iceland (59
th
, down from
11
th
), and the United States (19
th
, down from second overall).

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News Release — Canada imposes visas on St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland

This news release was updated September 12, 2012.

Ottawa, September 11, 2012 — Beginning at 12:01 a.m. EDT today, citizens of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (St. Vincent), Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland now require a visa to travel to Canada, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced.

For the first 48 hours, or until 11:59 p.m. September 12, 2012, citizens of these countries who are in transit to Canada at the time the visa requirement takes effect will be able to receive a Temporary Resident Permit on arrival in Canada, free of charge, if they are not otherwise inadmissible to Canada.

"We continue to welcome genuine visitors to Canada," said Minister Kenney. "These changes are necessary to protect the integrity of Canada's fair and generous immigration system by helping us to reduce an unacceptably high number of immigration violations."

These changes will allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and its partners to ensure that those seeking to visit Canada intend to return to their country of origin, rather than overstaying or committing other immigration violations.

A key reason why the government has imposed visa requirements on St. Lucia and St. Vincent is unreliable travel documents. In particular, criminals from these countries can legally change their names and acquire new passports. In some instances, people who were removed from Canada as security risks later returned using different passports. In the case of Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland, human trafficking, especially of minors, and fraudulent documents are of significant concern.

There has also been an unacceptably high number of asylum claims from St. Lucia and St. Vincent, with about one and a half percent and three percent of the population of these countries making asylum claims in Canada over the past five years. The African country that has the highest immigration violation rate is Namibia, with eighty-one percent in 2011. Seventy-one percent of travellers from Namibia made asylum claims in 2011.

"These changes are necessary because all the countries concerned have an immigration violation rate of over thirty percent, well above the level we deem acceptable for countries benefiting from a visa exemption," said Minister Kenney.

Canada regularly reviews its visa requirements toward other countries. Countries are aware that they have a responsibility to satisfy certain conditions to receive a visa exemption.

This visa policy change means that nationals from St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland who want to travel to Canada will first need to apply for a visitor visa and meet the requirements to receive one.

It is up to the applicants to satisfy visa officers that their visit to Canada is temporary; they will not overstay their authorized stay; they have enough money to cover their stay; they are in good health; they do not have a criminal record; and they are not a security risk to Canadians. These requirements are the same for anyone who wants to visit Canada.

Applicants from St. Lucia and St. Vincent can now submit their applications by mail or in person to the Canadian visa office in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Applications will be accepted by the visa office in Pretoria, South Africa, for those from Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland. In the months ahead travellers to Canada will be able to apply online for all temporary visas.

This decision will further strengthen the immigration and asylum systems, and it complements the measures the government is implementing this year under the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, which recently received Royal Assent.

"The Government of Canada remains committed to protecting the integrity of our immigration system and welcoming bona fide visitors from around the world."

News Release — Reducing Backlogs to Achieve a Fast and Flexible Immigration System

The Centre Block on Parliament Hill, containing the houses of the Canadian parliament (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ottawa, September 17, 2012 —The Government of Canada welcomed the findings of a report on immigration backlogs by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and tabled its response in Parliament today.

“I think we can all agree that backlogs are unfair to applicants, harmful to Canada’s ability to attract the best and brightest from around the world, and hold back economic and job growth,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney. “I thank the Standing Committee members for their hard work in compiling their report.”

The Committee commented favourably on what the Government has already achieved to date through the Action Plan for Faster Immigration and the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification. However, the Committee report also made clear that more needs to be done in order to better align application intake with admission levels.

The committee report recognizes that backlogs have occurred because for too long Canada has accepted more applications than it can process and admit in a given year.  Over time, this annual surplus of applications resulted in a backlog of more than a million applicants, and processing delays of eight to ten years in some immigration categories. The report concluded that, in order to avoid future backlogs, it is critical that the Government act to ensure that the annual number of applications better align with the number of admissions.  The report also recommended exploring further options to deal with the problem of existing backlogs, particularly in the federal skilled worker, immigrant investor, and parent and grandparent classes.

The Government agrees with all of the Standing Committee’s report recommendations and has already acted quickly to tackle application backlogs in key areas. Successes include:

• Reducing the pre-2008 Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) backlog by more than 50 percent by 2011 – two years earlier than expected – through the 2008 Action Plan for Faster Immigration and successive Ministerial Instructions limiting application intake.  Most recently, Economic Action Plan 2012 removed around 280,000 applicants from that FSW backlog, which paves the way for a faster and more flexible economic immigration system;
• Managing intake of the Immigrant Investor Program applications starting in July 2011.  Most recently, a temporary pause on new applications was introduced on July 1, 2012 to allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to focus on processing existing applications and reviewing the program’s effectiveness;
• Significantly decreasing the backlog of applications for parents and grandparents since fall 2011, as a result of increased admission targets and a two-year pause on new applications under the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification.  At the same time, CIC introduced a new “Super Visa,” which allows for visits of up to two years by parents and grandparents, and has proven to be a popular alternative for applicants.

In the last year, the Government has also launched public online consultations on re-designing the parent and grandparent program, and reforming the Immigrant Investor Program.  Policy work on reformed programs is now underway.

“The economy and job growth remain the Government’s number one priority,” said Minister Kenney. “We continue to take the issue of immigration backlogs very seriously, and we will be doing even more in the future to transform our immigration system into one that is fast, fair, flexible, and serves the interests of Canada’s long-term prosperity.”

The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration tabled its report, entitled “Cutting the Queue: Reducing Canada’s Immigration Backlogs and Wait Times,” in March 2012.

Canada Closing Its Doors To The Roma – OpEd

Young Hungarian Roma dancing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By: VOR

September 16, 2012


By John Robles

The situation for the Roma in Europe is not improving. Trapped in a cycle of discrimination and poverty where they are not allowed a decent education and therefore cannot obtain decent jobs and in many cases segregated, not allowed proper health care and under constant attacks by ever increasing nationalist groups all over Europe, many turn to crime, prostitution and any other means they can to simply survive. This only reinforces the negative view of the Roma and leads to even more discrimination against them.


Canada
The Hungarian Roma community, which accounts for approximately 7% of Hungary’s population, continues to face discrimination in every aspect of their lives. Since a report issued by Amnesty International in 2009 little has changed for Hungary’s Roma, they still face discrimination and segregation in all areas of life. This includes public education, housing, employment and medical care.

The Roma not only face daily racism and discrimination but they have to contend with violent attacks by nationalist and neo-Nazi groups such as the illegal paramilitary Hungarian National Guard, which was disbanded by the Hungarian government but reformed and continues to grow. It is for the most part an anti-Roman organization whose members have included high level Hungarian officials in the past.

Last month the Hungarian Guard held an inauguration ceremony for 140 new members in a secret location in Dunaföldvár Hungary. Although the police came out in force, with over 300 officers taking part in an operation to shut down the ceremony and arrest members, the group managed to confuse police with decoys and misleading phone calls, and the police raided a location where none of the group’s members were actually present.

The discrimination of the Roma is by far not limited to Hungary, they face discrimination all over Europe but the reason that I am focusing on the Hungarian Roma is because soon they may have no place to go as many who were seeking asylum in Canada are being sent back and the doors for Roma asylum seekers in Canada are about to be all but closed.

With the passing of the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, a Canadian piece of legislation that some are calling the “anti-Roma law, the process for the Roma obtaining asylum will be all but impossible and their deportation will be much easier and quicker.

According to Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, in a report on the cic.gc.ca website; “This legislation will help stop foreign criminals, human smugglers and those with unfounded refugee claims from abusing Canada’s generous immigration system and receiving taxpayer funded health and social benefits. Canada’s immigration and refugee system is one of the most fair and generous in the world and will continue to be so under the new and improved system.”

In reality the law will stop the waves of Roma that had begun to arrive in Canada and were abusing the system, often by returning to Hungary and still receiving benefits from the Canadian government. But the reason they return is not so simple as the government wants to portray. For many of the Roma they have no choice, many arrived in Canada with the hope for a better life but were trapped in conditions that were worse than the ones that they had left another example of the vicious cycle that the Roma are trapped in.

The new law now allows the Canadian Government the option of adding countries to a safe list in order to speed up the processing of refugees and deporting them. If a refugee comes from a country on the list, their claim will be processed in 45 days, not the 1,000 days that the other claimants have.

Such a move may help Canada to implement a universal no-visa policy for the entire European Union, something it currently does not have. For example Hungarians do not require a visa to travel to Canada but Czechs do. Their non-visa status was revoked due to the number of Roma claims for asylum.

According to the Budapest times the Canada Border Services Agency has recently reported that they are worried about the rising level of crime being committed by Hungarian Roma refugees in the country, these crimes mainly include skimming fraud and check fraud with a rising level of cases where checks are stolen and deposited into the bank accounts of refugee claimants who returned to Hungary.

The Budapest Times reported last year that the head of the National Roma Self-Government Flórián Farkas was warned by the Canadian Ambassador in Budapest, that Roma travelling to Canada “face prolonged and complicated procedures and have little chance of their asylum application being successful.”

So for the Roma seeking a better life and to break the cycle discrimination which starts with poor education, poor medical care and poor housing and continues and leads to job discrimination and no chance for quality employment and the betterment of their lives due to the previous reasons, another door appears to have been closed due to the actions of some who have supposedly cheated the system.
Unfortunately for the Roma the vicious cycle they are trapped in may not have an exit.

Source: http://www.eurasiareview.com/16092012-canada-closing-its-doors-to-the-roma-oped/

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New Canadian visa links immigrant entrepreneurs with local investors

Canada hopes to attract high-potential startups to the country by creating a new type of visa for entrepreneurs, and in particular those involved in the technology industry, reports The Globe and Mail.

The country has placed a moratorium on issuing its existing entrepreneur visa class that requires immigrants to hire at least one person living in Canada for one year. It intends to issue a new type of visa where individuals would be accepted if they were in receipt of Canadian venture investment funds.

The moratorium on its existing entrepreneur visa class will see the country clear its backlog of applications by 2014. It is then hoped that the new visa class will see new applicants gain entry in months.

A press secretary for Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, stated,

“The startup visa is an initiative that the government of Canada is exploring to assist in transforming our immigration system into a fast, fair and flexible system that will meet the needs of our economy and help grow our country.”

So, if a Canadian venture capital firm identified a particular startup to invest in, and which intends to establish base in Canada, the Canadian authorities would grant an entrepreneurial visa based on this evidence and the startup could be cleared for entry “within weeks”. The concept behind the new visa class is to “unite Canadian money with foreign brains”.

“This program will link brilliant, job-creating, immigrant entrepreneurs with Canadian investors. We want the world’s best and brightest to come to Canada – to start businesses and to create jobs in Canada.”

In 2011, the Canadian government issued 700 visas under the current entrepreneur class. The the new visa class, expected to be unveiled in greater detail later this year, will issue up to 2,750 visas per year for startup entrepreneurs and their family members.

Canada has the highest sustained level of immigration in the world.

A new type of investor class visa is also intended to be introduced. The right to immigrate would be granted if the investor lent $400,000 – $800,000 to local governments.

Source: The Globe and Mail, Canadian flag image from Bigstock

Project connects immigrants with small businesses

CARYS MILLS

The Globe and Mail

After a two-year job hunt, Richie Sanasy finally found a business looking to hire newcomers to Canada like him.

Despite a business management degree and accounting experience, Mr. Sanasy had been unable to find relevant work since arriving in Kitchener, Ont., from the tiny island of Mauritius.

Then, last year, he met Prakash Venkataraman, president and chief executive officer of Brantford, Ont.-based Redragon Oil and Gas Systems International Inc. The manufacturer of custom utility and recycling engineering was looking specifically for bilingual newcomers with overseas connections to help the business expand internationally.

It’s the kind of fit that far too many small and medium-sized businesses and new immigrants overlook, according to an upcoming report from the Maytree Foundation, a charitable agency.

Many small business owners are in desperate need of skilled workers, but are either unaware of or don’t consider the qualified pool of new immigrants that have already arrived in Canada, says Maytree president Ratna Omidvar.

At the same time, many newcomers want to work at large companies they’ve heard of back home but either do not know of or don’t think about approaching smaller companies that could use their skills, she adds.

Maytree has set up a new project under its Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies (ALLIES) that is trying to come up with strategies to connect the two, contending it will bring benefits to both. ALLIES, in partnership with The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, began the new initiative last October; it will wrap up its consultations with small businesses this fall and use its findings to help formulate pilot projects to be later rolled out.

Canada brings in about 250,000 immigrants each year, according to Maytree. While the largest group is skilled immigrants, only one in four immigrants is able to find employment relevant to their education and experience, Maytree has found.

About 30 per cent of immigrants who have come to major cities including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax in the last decade hold a bachelor’s degree, according to Maytree.

Ms. Omidvar points out that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hire 64 per cent of private-sector workers in Canada, so immigrants are overlooking many job possibilities if they don’t consider them as potential employers.

But “part of our challenge is that new immigrants don’t tend to go to SMEs,” she says.

At the same time, smaller companies may lack the human resource expertise and staffing to reach out to and recruit the ready pool of immigrants that are right at their doorstep, she says.

Ms. Omidvar says it may feel daunting for a smaller business, whose owner may be in charge of hiring, to interpret overseas qualifications and check up on foreign references. Costs associated with training or making a wrong hire may make a newcomer applicant seem riskier than someone with extensive Canadian experience and education, she says.

“We understand that mitigating risk is a huge factor for any employer. No employer wants to take a risk but bigger employers may be more likely,” she says.

Existing programs that bring small businesses together with immigrants are spotty throughout the country. One, the Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment Network (WRIEN), funded by the Ontario government, helps employers connect with immigrants by running networking and internship programs.

It was through that network that Redragon’s Mr. Venkataraman met Mr. Sanasy at an event last year. Mr. Venkataraman, who is originally from India, says he understands the employment hurdles newcomers face since he’s an immigrant himself.

Before meeting Mr. Venkataraman, Mr. Sanasy spent two years searching for jobs in his field while working in manual labour jobs and attending college.

“I was ready to hit the ground running but needed this one opportunity to start my life here,” says Mr. Sanasy,. “It was quite hard.”

At the event, the two chatted about business. Mr. Sanasy was offered an interview and later hired for a shipping and receiving job at the company. Within six months, he was promoted to materials manager.

Mr. Venkataraman says initiatives including WRIEN have helped him recruit recent immigrants from India, Australia, the Philippines, Cuba, the Middle East and Sri Lanka. Those international connections and the fact that his 30 employees speak a total of 25 languages have helped Mr. Venkataraman expand his business to hundreds of clients worldwide since opening in 2005, he says.

“It’s the chicken-and-the-egg case,” Mr. Venkataraman says.”You need to give them the opportunity before you can expect Canadian experience.”

Other small-business employers have also seen opportunity in recruiting immigrants that have already arrived in Canada.

Peter Kelk, president of George Kelk Corp., says he relies heavily onLinkedIn to recruit talented newcomers. Being open to international applicants has meant the majority of his hires have been newcomers, he says.

“We’re a high-technology company and the immigrant population tends to be highly educated,” says Mr. Kelk, whose Toronto-based company produces sensors for steel rolling mills.

He says checking international references has become easier with the increasing popularity of the Internet worldwide.

“It’s simply that we’ve been open-minded,” Mr. Kelk says. “It’s not charity on our part; it’s good business.”

Despite academic qualifications, getting an interview with companies other than the likes of Redragon or Kelk may be stymied by lack of Canadian experience, says Anil Verma, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and theRotman School of Management.

Employers are looking for professionals like engineers and electricians who already know country-specific standards and regulations, he says.

“These newcomers need some kind of investment in training and opportunity to work, let’s say, as an intern or apprentice,” Prof. Verma says. “Small businesses do not have a surplus of the manpower or the time or cost to give these opportunities to people, so this is what causes the mismatch.”

To help bridge those kinds of gaps, Maytree’s preliminary suggestions include more internship programs throughout the country that could be subject to government wage subsidies.

New approach proposed for immigrant recruiting

WALLACE IMMEN

The Globe and Mail

When George Kelk Corp. is looking to recruit new employees, it sets its sights on Canada’s immigrant community first.

“Eighty per cent of our staff of 160 was born outside of Canada,” said Peter Kelk, president of the Toronto company, which makes instruments for mining and metal forming. “Since we export 98 per cent of our production, their understanding of how business is done in their home areas helps us enormously.”

The approach stands in stark contrast to the immigrant hiring practices of most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to a report released by Maytree on Tuesday.

Canada annually receives about 250,000 immigrants – many of whom have advanced degrees and skills that are in demand – but only a small fraction of them manage to land jobs at SMBs, which represent 64 per cent of new private-sector positions. The issue is two-fold, the report concludes: Smaller employers are often unaware of the skills immigrants bring to the table or how to reach out to them, while newcomers tend to focus their job hunts on well-known corporations.

“This represents a huge opportunity,” said Ratna Omidvar, president of study sponsor Maytree, a non-profit foundation that develops programs to integrate immigrants into the work force. The consultations for Global Talent for SMEs: Building Bridges and Making Connections, conducted by a division of Maytree, included 300 small-business owners in five focus groups across Canada, and individual interviews with entrepreneurs.

“They said they’re just as open to hiring foreign trained talent as anyone else. Their problem is they don’t have the connections to find immigrants with the skills they need,” Ms. Omidvar said. “They tend to hire just in time: it’s ‘who do you know and who’s in front of me?’”

The researchers also found that immigrant advocate groups have tended to focus only on big employers “because they are the ones who can come to the table during discussions and have the capacity in their HR departments to recruit and vet immigrant candidates,” Ms. Omidvar added.

A primary recommendation of the report is for a single point of SMB access to recruiting and hiring support for immigrants.

Small-scale programs of this nature already exist locally. Pat d'Entremont, partner with technology services company Nicom IT Solutions, said his 85-employee company has recently found immigrants for hard-to-fill positions through the Greater Halifax Partnership’s Connector Program, which helps immigrants expand their personal networks to connect with business people. The Nova Scotia government has also set up programs to encourage immigrant hiring, Mr. D’Entremont pointed out, including a job board for skilled immigrants and – in some cases – financial assistance.

The focus groups agreed SMBs would do better if there was an online data base of screened immigrant candidates. “They said they need something that is sector-wide and they would benefit from an HR advisory or consulting site that they could use when they’re looking for talent,” Ms. Omidvar said.

Lionel Carriere, president of mobile software company XEA Services in Edmonton, said he’d have immediate use for such a data base. “We’re a growing company facing challenges in finding people with the skills we need. But as a small enterprise, we don’t have access to tools and resources that would allow us to recruit foreign trained workers. Our only (hiring) option is for them to find us.”

In consultations with Maytree, Mr. Carriere recommended the agency that runs the data base also provide pre-screening of equivalency of international experience and reference checks, as well as assistance in supporting any new employee’s adaptation to Canadian culture.

Another recommendation in the report is for governments to provide wage and orientation subsidies as incentives for small employers, which can’t offer compensation at the same level as larger employers. These might include bonuses payable when an SMB hires an eligible skilled immigrant for at least 12 months, or a tax credit similar to the federal subsidy on Employment Insurance payments for small business hiring that was extended in the recent federal budget.

“Given the austere times, financial assistance programs, like first-job subsidies, are probably not going to be as likely to be available as an option, but we should keep it on the books for better times,” Ms. Omidvar conceded.

Most immediately, the report recommended targeting SMBs with information campaigns. “We want to use trusted intermediaries – services and institutions that SMEs use – to promote the programs and the advantages of tapping into the pool of skilled immigrants,” Ms. Omidvar said.

Most specifically, “the consultations found employers trust their accountants. We want to work with accounting organizations to provide information about services that are available and explain the advantages of hiring talented immigrants, particularly for a company that wants to develop a global market,” Ms. Omidvar said.

Maytree plans to do a pilot program with these ideas later this year, she said. They will look for partners in local communities, including governments, advocacy groups and colleges and universities, as well as leading employers.

“We don’t want to tell them what to do. Local employers know their particular sector and the needs of local employers. We want more SMEs to come out and tell us what will work.”